Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Last weekend, we went to our local orchard and picked 15 pounds of apples. You can't beat 99 cents a pound for fresh PA apples. We picked a variety of Granny Smith, Stayman (it's said like our last name) and Fuji....so be on the lookout for new recipes featuring apples in the coming weeks.

One of my mom friends was looking for a dessert to make with cheesecake and apples and I did a little searching for her since I had cream cheese in my fridge I needed to use you and it was the perfect time for me to do some baking. I found a recipe for a cinnamon-apple cake that uses apples and cream cheese - perfect!

We both made the cake and I have to agree with Megs, it's delicious and so moist. The cream cheese in the batter makes it. You must try it and make it this weekend....just be prepared for it to be eaten in record time. My only suggestion is to double the amount of apples - I'll note the amount I'll use next time in the recipe below. Both my husband and I wanted there to be more apple pieces in the batter.

1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 ozs fat-free cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 cups chopped and peeled granny smith apples (or other variety of apple)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8 inch springform pan (or a 9 inch round pan) with cooking spray and set aside.

In a bowl of a mixer, beat together 1 1/2 cups of sugar, butter, vanilla and cream cheese until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each one. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat at low speed until well blended.

Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Take 4 tablespoons of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and mix with the chopped apples in a separate bowl. Add the apples to the batter and fold into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the side of the pan. It will be about 1 hour if you use the round pan. Cook the cake completely on a wire rack before cutting with a serrated knife.

Source: Cooking Light